- Developed a vampire slayer agit-prop
theater piece, which debuted in Spanish and English for a General Assembly
at City College (December 2009).
This street theater was re-worked
and performed throughout the season of protest by a drama class of
40 students at San Francisco State University, taught by Professor Carlos
Baron. The street theater troupe
created a crew of giant street puppets that became mascots for the movement. The puppets included Starving Student;
Vampire; La Llorena/Crying Mother and others. The troupe traveled from protest to
protest on 'the Mexican bus,' a well known cultural institution in the
Latino/a community. On March 4 itself, the street theater troupe and their
puppets traveled through the streets of San Francisco in an open air cable
car, complete with a brass band and tuba.
The troupe chanted, sang, and urged passersby to attend the
demonstration.
- Researched and distributed 22,000 copies
of our signature vampire leaflet and 8000 palm cards, always dressed in
vampire capes.
- Produced and mass distributed three
thousand copies of a vampire poster saying: California,
#1 in prison spending, #48 in education spending (a few of our main
distribution venues include Teachers for Social Justice Conference October
2009 & 2011; San Francisco March 4, 2010; Sacramento, March in March
2010).
- Distributed hundreds of posters and
postcards created by street artist AJ Transviña (Education
is a human right; Education not incarceration.)
- We leafletted and ran literature tables at
many organizing meetings and all the major demonstrations over the past
year.
- Spoke at several demonstrations and
organizing meetings (e.g., all-segments meeting at SFSU September 26,
2009; Northern California all-segments meeting at UC Berkeley October 24,
2009, 800 people; the Left Forum in New York).
- Produced a website with resources for
organizers, www.vampireslayers.org
(note: enter this URL in the address bar at the top of your screen rather
than using a web browser, or you will get lost in Buffyland).
- Published opinion editorials on Eduction, not Incarceration in the
California Faculty Association statewide magazine, the California
Federation of Teacher statewide magazine, and a local union newspaper,
together with friends from CURB (Californians United for a Responsible
Budget, www.curbprisonspending.org).
- http://takeastand4publiced.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/giant-puppets2.jpg
- Developed three workshops for use by
teachers and community activists:
(1) Teachable Moment, a lesson plan for college and high school
classes based on the vampire flyer ; (2) a popular education
workshop: Timeline on Public
Education in California; and (3) a variant on the Ten Chairs of Wealth
Inequality that vividly shows extreme wealth inequality and how the richer
you are, the lower your tax rate.
We and friends led these workshops at a social work conference; a
teach-in about the California budget crisis sponsored by the Center for
Political Education and Californians United to Reform the Budget; the SFSU
Experimental College; UC San Diego; the US Social Forum (June 2010) and
other venues. Find workshop
outlines on the Vampire Slayer website.
- Sponsored an organizer's lunch with Chris
Newfield, the author of Un-Making
the Public University, Harvard University Press (San Francisco State,
May, 2009).
- Sponsored a well-attended film showing of
Naomi Klein speaking about The Shock
Doctrine, followed by a discussion (San Francisco State, Feb. 18,
2010)
- Sponsored a well-attended event against
the ending of remedial education in the Cal State University system. The
event was keynoted by statewide organizer Steve Teixeira who framed the
proposed cutback as a civil rights issue (San Francisco State, October
2010, SFSU). Participated in
organizing meetings and meetings with the SFSU administration on this issue.
- Co-sponsored an event attended by 450
people with speakers from Save Ethnic Studies in Tucson Arizona, opposing
the outlawing of ethnic studies in that state. March 1, 2011.
- Co-sponsored an event to oppose the end of
remediation in the CSU: Early Start or Last Stop/ The speaker was Kimberly Clark of
CSU-LA. The event was part of
International Women's Month and took place on March 9, 2011.
- Led Ten Chairs of Wealth Inequality at the
campaign launch of Budget for Humanity sponsored by Californians United to
Reform the Budget, March 29, 2011.
- Sponsored Teach-in on the Budget Crisis,
part of the Nation's national teach-in. April 5, 2011.
- Sponsored speaker on the oil extraction
tax at SF State, July 24, 2011.
- Sponsored music benefit with songstress
Kaylah Marin and her band, July 15, 2011.
- Sponsored house meeting with statewide
leader of the movement against Mandatory Early Start, Steve Teixeira,
officer of APC,
- Issued series of existing and updated
posters and postcards and got out hundreds at Teachers for Social Justice
Conference 10.9.11 (SF) and Critical Resistance Conference 10.9.11
(Oakland).
- Updated and Released the Vampire Slayer poster (now a fold over), Spring 2012. Distributing widely.
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